The Instars Fellowship supports indigenous students from historically under-represented backgrounds, whether that is based on race, gender, or ethnicity, with the aim to broaden participation and leadership within the freshwater sciences.
Tāne holds a bachelor of science degree from the University of Otago with a background in environmental geoscience and is presently working within the Wai-māori (freshwater) department at Hokonui Rūnanga Kaupapa Taiao.
While at the conferences, Tāne gave a presentation on "Hokonui Rūnanga Kaupapa Taiao: Empowering Indigenous-led Māori Freshwater Management", featuring our mahi (work) that we do in the Mataura catchment. This includes our tuna (eel) trap and transfer, kanakana (lamprey) monitoring, kākahi (freshwater mussel) monitoring, electrofishing, water testing, and cultural evaluation programmes.
"The highlight of the conferences for me was the great networking connections that I was able to make across different cultures and science backgrounds, nationally and internationally, for both my professional career and for Hokonui Rūnanga Kaupapa Taiao," he said.
"The most striking thing that I found was the readiness of people to recognise the importance of, and incorporate, indigenous knowledge [mātauranga] and values [tikanga] in their work, across the world, and decolonialise their world views.
"Although there is still much to be done to create a safe space for indigenous peoples, it is great to see this dynamic shift, especially in the sciences, starting to happen.
"The whole conference far exceeded my expectations, it was hands-down one of the best experiences of my life so far. I highly recommend it to anyone who has the chance to attend, I will see you in Philadelphia next year!"
His take-home messages from the conference was "do not rush, take your time".
"Make sure that you are doing something that you are passionate about that aligns with your values and future goals.
Always have a clear picture of who you are and where you are going, and how what you are doing fits into this picture."
